CELTIC legend Joe McBride has revealed why being robbed of the chance to be a Lisbon Lion was the luckiest thing that ever happened to him.

CELTIC legend Joe McBride has revealed why being robbed of the chance to be a Lisbon Lion was the luckiest thing that ever happened to him.

The injury that forced him to miss the biggest game in his club's history uncovered potentially life-threatening cancer.

Every Parkhead fan can rhyme off the team who became the first British side to win the European Cup in 1967 - Simpson, Craig and Gemmell; Murdoch, McNeill and Clark; Johnstone, Wallace, Chalmers, Auld and Lennox.

But Joe would undoubtedly have been part of the famous team that beat Inter Milan 2-1 exactly 43 years ago on Tuesday.

He finished 1966/67 as the top scorer in the country, bagging 35 goals from 26 appearances.

But while his team-mates were beating Inter, brave Joe was battling cancer.

Far from being bitter, Joe, now 71, is thankful for the injury as he reveals for the first time that missing out on footballing immortality saved his life.

He had already broken down in training several times before the crunch came in a 1-1 draw at Aberdeen on Christmas Eve.

Joe said: "I got to half-time at Pittodrie and it became obvious that I couldn't carry on.

"The club sent me everywhere - including London - trying to find out what was wrong.

"Eventually I was seen by Professor Roland Barnes in Glasgow. He spotted a pin-hole in the cartilage when he opened me up.

"Most doctors would just have taken the cartilage out and left it at that but he wanted to discover what had caused the hole.

"So he did some investigating and found some flaking on the bone behind my kneecap."

It was what the orthopaedic surgeon did next, however, that made all the difference.

"I was very lucky because that was a really early diagnosis. If I had played on then I could have died or had my leg amputated."

Even then, there was still hope within Parkhead that their leading marksman would be able to share in their European glory.

Joe said: "I had been like Pele up until that injury, just scoring goals for fun. In fact, when I first broke down and was having treatment at the ground all of the directors turned up to see how I was.

"Even when I came out of the hospital after my operation Big Jock (Stein) said to me: "The semi-final's a good few weeks away yet, Joe - there's still time.

"As it was, I came out on crutches and with my leg in plaster up to my waist. I wasn't able to give the crutches up until just before we were due to play Inter."

Joe has already won a League Cup medal that season and had played enough matches to qualify for a championship medal.

The club also gave him a European Cup winner's medal to mark his contribution in the earlier rounds.

He didn't make another league appearance for 12 months - and then bagged a hat-trick against Morton at Parkhead.

However, he was sold to Hibs the following year and scored 10 times in his first five matches for the Edinburgh club. He was top marksman in both his seasons at Easter Road and remains their joint-top scorer in Europe.

After retiring from football in 1972 Joe entered the pub business with The Wee Mill near Shawfield Stadium.

He also briefly owned Sidelines in London Road with Lisbon Lion Bertie Auld and ran a group of hotels with Billy McNeill.

Joe's wife, Margaret, died of throat cancer in 2004 and last July he, son Joe and grandson Joe ran the Mens 10K to raise money for Maggie's Cancer Caring Centre.

His daughter Julie lives near him in Bishopbriggs.

Joe said: "I'm officially retired now but I work at Celtic Park on match days, going round the hospitality suites and chatting to the punters. It means I see my old team-mates on a regular basis - and I get to see Celtic for free!"

Next month Joe will be in San Francisco as a guest of the North American Celtic Supporters convention.

He said: "Fans have been telling me for years how unlucky I was at missing out on Lisbon and I do sometimes wonder: 'What if?

"However, I know exactly how lucky I was that the injury happened when it did."

The greats cheated of chance to shine

Some of football's greatest names have missed the games of their lives due to injuries, suspensions or sheer bad luck.

France defender Laurent Blanc missed the chance to win the World Cup with his team mates in 1998 because of a cheating opponent.

Blanc played in every round of the tournament except the final - because he was unfairly red-carded in the semi-final against Croatia.

The sending-off happened because Croatian Slaven Bilic pretended to have been elbowed by Blanc - with replays proving the Frenchman was innocent.

France couldn't appeal and Blanc had to watch as his country beat Brazil 3-0 to lift the trophy.

In the build-up to the 2008/2009 season few Manchester United fans would have lost much sleep over the absence of Scots midfielder Darren Fletcher.

But by the time a yellow card ruled him out of last year's Champions League final Fletcher had become a key figure.

The booking was for a harmless challenge against Arsenal in the semi-final.

United lost the final 2-0 to Barcelona.

David Villa was the top scorer in the 2008 European Championships but was ruled out of the final with a last-minute leg injury.

Villa's partner Fernando Torres scored the goals which won thetournament for Spain. Villa, who signed for Barcelona for £40million last week, will appear at next month's World Cup.